Es gibt keine Buchführung für den Geschmack.

English Translation

There is no accounting for taste.

Is this a real phrase? It feels like a literal translation of an English saying.

You’re right, this translation is wrong and literal. The German sentence is not a real sentence.

It should say: “Über Geschmack lässt sich nicht streiten.”

It comes from the Latin sentence:

Some Germans omit the “nicht”, saying you can argue about matters of taste. But since there is no wrong or right answer, and everyone has a different taste, it doesn’t make sense philosophically to argue about things that don’t have a canonical answer.

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